[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 846 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 846
Supporting the goals and ideals of October as ``National Domestic
Violence Awareness Month''.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 31, 2025
Mr. Green of Texas (for himself, Ms. Adams, Mr. Amo, Ms. Ansari, Ms.
Balint, Ms. Barragan, Mrs. Beatty, Mr. Bell, Mr. Bera, Mr. Bishop, Ms.
Bonamici, Ms. Brown, Ms. Budzinski, Ms. Bynum, Mr. Carbajal, Mr.
Carson, Mr. Carter of Louisiana, Mr. Carter of Texas, Mr. Casten, Ms.
Castor of Florida, Mrs. Cherfilus-McCormick, Ms. Chu, Mr. Cisneros, Ms.
Clarke of New York, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Costa, Ms. Crockett, Ms. Davids of
Kansas, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Ms. Dean of Pennsylvania, Ms. DeGette,
Mr. Deluzio, Mr. DeSaulnier, Ms. Dexter, Mrs. Dingell, Ms. Elfreth, Ms.
Escobar, Mr. Espaillat, Mr. Evans of Pennsylvania, Mr. Fields, Mr.
Figures, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Foster, Mrs. Foushee, Mr. Frost, Mr.
Garamendi, Mr. Garcia of California, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Ms. Garcia
of Texas, Mr. Goldman of New York, Mr. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Mr.
Gottheimer, Mr. Himes, Mr. Horsford, Mr. Hoyer, Mr. Huffman, Mr. Ivey,
Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Ms. Jacobs, Ms. Jayapal, Ms. Johnson of Texas,
Mr. Hernandez, Ms. Kaptur, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mr. Kennedy of New
York, Ms. King-Hinds, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Mr. Landsman, Mr. Larsen of
Washington, Mr. Larson of Connecticut, Mr. Latimer, Ms. Lee of
Pennsylvania, Mr. Liccardo, Mr. Lieu, Mr. Lynch, Ms. Matsui, Mrs.
McBath, Ms. McBride, Mrs. McClain Delaney, Ms. McClellan, Ms. McCollum,
Mr. McGovern, Mrs. McIver, Ms. Meng, Mr. Mfume, Mr. Min, Ms. Moore of
Wisconsin, Mr. Morelle, Mr. Moulton, Mr. Mrvan, Mr. Mullin, Mr. Nadler,
Mr. Neal, Mr. Neguse, Ms. Norton, Mr. Nunn of Iowa, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez,
Mr. Olszewski, Mr. Panetta, Mr. Pappas, Mr. Peters, Ms. Pingree, Ms.
Plaskett, Mr. Pocan, Ms. Pou, Mr. Quigley, Mrs. Ramirez, Mr. Raskin,
Ms. Rivas, Ms. Ross, Mr. Ruiz, Ms. Salinas, Ms. Sanchez, Ms.
Schakowsky, Ms. Scholten, Mr. David Scott of Georgia, Ms. Sewell, Ms.
Sherrill, Ms. Simon, Mr. Smith of Washington, Ms. Stansbury, Mr.
Stanton, Mr. Subramanyam, Mr. Swalwell, Mrs. Sykes, Mr. Thanedar, Mr.
Thompson of California, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Ms. Titus, Ms.
Tlaib, Ms. Tokuda, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Torres of New York, Mrs. Torres of
California, Mrs. Trahan, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Veasey, Ms. Velazquez, Ms.
Wasserman Schultz, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms. Williams of Georgia, and
Ms. Wilson of Florida) submitted the following resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Supporting the goals and ideals of October as ``National Domestic
Violence Awareness Month''.
Whereas this resolution may be cited as the ``Original National Domestic
Violence Awareness Month Resolution of 2025'';
Whereas, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the definition of
``domestic violence'' is the willful intimidation, physical assault,
battery, sexual assault, or other abusive behaviors as part of a
systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate
partner against another;
Whereas a society that tolerates the hurt, pain, suffering, distress, anguish,
trauma, and grief of domestic violence perpetuates the injury and grief
of domestic violence;
Whereas a just society embraces the moral imperative to eliminate, not mitigate,
domestic violence;
Whereas intimate partner violence affects people of all ages as well as all
racial, ethnic, gender, economic, and religious backgrounds;
Whereas an average of 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical
violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States,
amounting to more than 12,000,000 women and men over the course of a
single year;
Whereas, in 2024, the National Domestic Violence Hotline answered more than
430,000 calls, chats, and texts about services;
Whereas, of the reported abuse types, 94 percent of those who contacted the
National Domestic Violence Hotline disclosed emotional abuse, 67 percent
stated they experienced physical abuse, 39 percent described economic or
financial abuse, 13 percent revealed digital abuse, and 17 percent
detailed sexual abuse;
Whereas 76 percent of those who contacted the National Domestic Violence Hotline
identified as victims or survivors, while 11 percent identified as
friends, family members, or other helpers, and 13 percent identified as
other, such as those working with survivors or even those causing the
harm;
Whereas women are disproportionately the victims of domestic violence, as
approximately 1 in 2 women will experience intimate partner violence or
stalking during their lifetimes, compared to 2 in 5 men;
Whereas survivors of domestic violence are strong, courageous, and resilient;
Whereas women ages 18 to 34 experience the highest rates, per capita, of
intimate partner violence;
Whereas approximately 1 in 5 women and 1 in 7 men who were victims of contact
sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner
first experienced these or other forms of violence before age 18;
Whereas nearly 1 in 3 college women say they have been in an abusive dating
relationship;
Whereas about 44 percent of Native American women and 14 percent of Native
American men will be raped in their lifetimes, and more than half
experience intimate partner violence in their lifetimes;
Whereas African-American women experience intimate partner violence at a rate
9.9 percent higher than that of White women and are 3 times more likely
to die, but African-American women are less likely than White women to
use social services or battered women's programs or to go to the
hospital because of domestic violence;
Whereas, in research conducted by the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based
Violence, 27.2 percent of Asian women reported experiencing intimate
physical or sexual violence (or both) during their lifetimes;
Whereas, according to the National Intimate and Sexual Violence Survey, 42.1
percent of Hispanic women are victimized by intimate partner violence,
defined by contact sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking, in
their lifetimes;
Whereas victims of domestic violence report hesitation calling law enforcement
and accessing victims services due to uncertainty arising from fear of
prosecution for unrelated activities, including immigration status;
Whereas the average cost of intimate partner violence over a victim's lifetime
for medical and mental health care services is $103,767 for women and
$23,414 for men;
Whereas, of women who die by homicide, 36 percent are killed by an intimate
partner or former intimate partner, which is 6 times higher than the
number of men killed by an intimate partner or former partner;
Whereas women victims are more vulnerable to contracting HIV or other sexually
transmitted infections (STIs) due to forced intercourse or prolonged
exposure to stress;
Whereas multiple nationwide studies suggest that there is a relationship between
intimate partner violence, depression, and suicidal behavior;
Whereas 25 to 50 percent of domestic violence victims report that they have lost
a job due, at least in part, to domestic violence;
Whereas some domestic violence victims who have protection orders or other
indications that they are victims are evicted from or denied access to
housing;
Whereas 57 percent of homeless women cite domestic violence as the reason for
their homelessness, and 80 percent of homeless mothers experience this
type of abuse at some point in their lifetimes;
Whereas a review of 12 United States studies, most of which included data from
multiple cities, shows that domestic violence incidents increased 8.1
percent after jurisdictions imposed pandemic-related lockdown orders;
Whereas 10.7 percent of women and 2.1 percent of men report having been stalked
by an intimate partner;
Whereas 81 percent of women who are stalked by a current or former male partner
are also physically abused by that partner;
Whereas, of total domestic violence homicides, about 75 percent of the victims
are killed as they attempted to leave the relationship or after the
relationship had ended;
Whereas 99 percent of relationships with domestic violence include financial
abuse, causing the survivors to stay or return to the abusive
relationship;
Whereas more than 8,000,000 days of paid work each year are lost due to domestic
violence issues, and the financial cost of intimate partner violence
exceeds $12,000,000,000 per year;
Whereas 96 percent of employed domestic violence victims experience problems at
work due to abuse;
Whereas between 10 to 20 percent of children are exposed to physical intimate
partner violence each year, and 5.7 percent are exposed to psychological
intimate partner violence each year;
Whereas children exposed to domestic violence are more likely to attempt
suicide, abuse drugs and alcohol, run away from home, and become victims
of human trafficking;
Whereas, familial trafficking, the exploitation of children or relatives by
parents, caregivers, or intimate partners, often occurs in households
where domestic violence is present, creating multi-generational cycles
of abuse;
Whereas 1 large study found that men exposed to physical abuse, sexual abuse,
and adult domestic violence as children were almost 4 times more likely
than other men to have perpetrated domestic violence as adults;
Whereas adults who report multiple types of childhood maltreatment are at
greater risk of engaging in abusive or neglectful parenting;
Whereas 1 in 10 high school students has experienced violence, either physical
or sexual, from a dating partner in the past year;
Whereas half of the youth who have been victims of both dating violence and rape
attempt suicide, compared to 12.5 percent of nonabused girls and 5.4
percent of nonabused boys;
Whereas there is a need for primary schools, secondary schools, and
postsecondary schools to educate students about the issues of domestic
violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking;
Whereas a recently released multistate study shows that the Nation's domestic
violence shelters are addressing victims' urgent and long-term needs and
are helping victims protect themselves and their children;
Whereas a 2024 survey by the National Network to End Domestic Violence reported
that more than 79,000 domestic violence victims were served by domestic
violence shelters and programs around the Nation in a single day;
Whereas an additional 14,095 requests for services went unmet that day due to
lack of resources, and 60 percent of these requests were for housing
needs;
Whereas transgender individuals are 2.2 times more at risk of physical intimate
partner violence and 2.5 times more at risk of sexual intimate partner
violence than cisgender individuals;
Whereas a 2018 analysis on the killings of women in 47 major United States
cities during the previous decade found that nearly half (46 percent) of
them died as a result of intimate partner violence;
Whereas 61.1 percent of bisexual women, 43.8 percent of lesbian women, 37.3
percent of bisexual men, and 26 percent of homosexual men experience
intimate partner violence during their lifetimes;
Whereas domestic violence advocates provide lifesaving, essential services;
Whereas there is a need to increase, not reduce, funding for programs aimed at
intervening in and preventing domestic violence in the United States;
and
Whereas October is an appropriate month for the observance of ``National
Domestic Violence Awareness Month'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This resolution may be cited as the ``Original National Domestic
Violence Awareness Month Resolution of 2025''.
SEC. 2. SUPPORTING NATIONAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH.
The House of Representatives--
(1) supports the goals and ideals of ``National Domestic
Violence Awareness Month''; and
(2) expresses the sense that Congress should continue to
raise awareness of domestic violence and its devastating
effects on individuals, families, and communities, and support
programs designed to end domestic violence in the United
States.
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